The court-appointed receiver in the Bernard Madoff case plans to appeal a judge's ruling that strictly limited the amount he can seek to recover from the owners of the New York Mets.

Irving Picard plans to ask U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff for permission to appeal his decision dismissing nine of 11 charges against the Mets owners—and cutting the amount that Picard can sue them for from more than $1 billion to less than $400 million. But, according to Picard, Rakoff's decision in the Mets case has much broader implications.

A lawyer for Picard said that Rakoff's banning clawbacks of phony profits from beyond two years ago would cut the amount that could be recovered by at least $2.7 billion, and could put another $3.5 billion in question. Picard has already recovered more than $8.6 million from the $65 billion Ponzi scheme—although more than $5 billion of that is in the process of litigation.

Picard added that Rakoff's decision, and his plan to appeal it, would delay the first payments to be made to Madoff's victims. The first $272 million in checks were to be sent today.